Interactive Toy with Object Recognition

ABSTRACT

An interactive toy containing an object identification system capable of identifying and recognizing animate and inanimate objects. Once an object is recognized, the toy will interact with the object by speaking to the object. The invention will also track the movements of the identified object. If the object leaves the immediate environment of the invention, the invention is capable of appropriately greeting and/or speaking with the object.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to interactive toys containing an identification system that allows recognition of other objects.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The U.S. toy industry is nearly $22 billion yearly. Of this the doll segment is $2.6 billion yearly. “Doll” as used in this description refers to baby dolls, stuffed animals, robots and other types of dolls. Many toys and dolls currently available in the market contain electronics that enable various levels of interactivity. However, no toy currently marketed has a working identification system to identify other persons, dolls and/or action figures. This level of interactivity has not been reached in the prior art.

Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system whose compactness and power consumption enable a toy's electronics to perform identification of other persons and toys and, thus, enrich a child's play experience. There is also a need for electronics whose form factor is such that the assembly fits within a toy's body, and whose power consumption is low enough to provide hours of high interactivity using ordinary batteries.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the problems, obstacles and deficiencies of the prior art.

It is also an object of the present invention to enroll an object within its database, by correlating a camera captured image to a name or other identification parameters.

It is another object of the present invention to identify and recognize an object by comparing a camera captured image to those represented within its database.

Once an object is recognized, the invention will interact with the object by speaking to the object, including with appropriate and pre-stored greetings. The invention will also track the movements of the identified object. If the object leaves the immediate environment of the invention, the invention is capable of appropriately greeting and/or speaking with the object.

The recognition of the object by the invention is performed by using an object recognition algorithm.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the object recognition system is embedded inside a Doll, that recognizes and identifies the human user playing with the Doll and interacts with said user.

Many other embodiments will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon viewing the drawings and reading the detailed description hereafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter, which is regarded as the invention, is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the over-all system for implementing object identification in one aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the placement of a near infra-red camera and illuminators in the eye socket of one aspect of the present invention. This invention is the first implementation of object identification that uses such a camera, which permits the toy to achieve its high degree of interactivity in all ambient light conditions.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the process by which the invention enables the toy to achieve its high degree of interactivity.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It should be understood that this embodiment, wherein the investion is embedded in a doll, is only one example of the many possible forms that the invention can use. In general, statements made in the specification of the present application do not necessarily limit any of the claims of the invention. Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventive features but not to others. In general, unless otherwise indicated, singular statement may be in the plural and vice-versa with no loss of generality.

The present invention 100 (see FIG. 1) achieves a degree of interactivity with a child playing with it beyond that supplied by any prior art. The invention gives a toy the capability to respond individually to each child's play environment.

The use of an infra-red imaging system 103 and 200 (see FIG. 2) in the invention removes the problem experienced by other image recognition applications, of extreme dependency on ambient light conditions. Simply put, image identification systems relying on visible light work poorly in low light conditions, such as those present in most children's bedrooms. By using an infra-red imaging system with onboard IR illumination, the invention operates in a consistent illumination environment, and, hence, provides the capability of claim [0010] in every environment. The imaging system 103 will be located in an eye of the doll 200 and have a resolution of at least 480i. The imaging system will include infra-red illuminators 200 to support operation in extremely low light conditions.

Enrollment of Objects. The invention relies on a pushbutton 108 located on the doll's arm 106 to trigger the embedded computer program to find an object in a captured camera image. The program compares the captured image to those represented in its database. If the captured image does not conform to an individual stored in the database, the doll's speaker system 107 asks the user for a name. The user supplies a name and, thus, the object becomes enrolled in the invention's identification subsystem.

Identification of Objects. The invention relies on a pushbutton 108 located on the doll's arm 106 to trigger the embedded computer program to find an object in a captured camera image. The program compares the captured image to those represented in its database. If the captured image conforms to an individual or a toy in the database, the doll's speaker system 107 announces the individual or toy by name.

Pre-Enrollment of Objects. The invention can upload a jpeg picture of an object and process that to enroll the object. Thus, the invention has “out of the box” recognizability.

Overall System Operation. The invention implements object recognition processing using modifications of the inventor's object recognition algorithms. The processing consists of three distinct phases: Object Capture, Object Encoding, and Object Matching. The program resides in a processor 101 with a small chip inside it 102 on a small board in the body of the doll 104. In the back of the doll is an on/off switch 105.

Object Capture. When a user depresses the pushbutton 108 the invention grabs an image frame from the infra-red camera video stream. The invention scans regions of the frame to determine if the image of an object is present and, if so where in the image it is.

Once an enrolled object is located, the invention passes the sub-image with the object to the object Encoding process.

Object Encoding. The invention uses the algorithm created by Dr. Wisniewski to encode object images into a Principal Value Decomposition in an efficient and rapid manner. The method uses “whole body” images of objects for its method. The invention encodes an object into a vector of coefficients. In the case of an enrollment—the encoding of a new object, the coefficient vector for that object is added to the database.

Object Matching. The invention performs a numerical comparison between the coefficient vector produced by Object Encoding and stored coefficient vectors representing all enrolled objects. If the comparison is successful, then the invention identifies the object as that individual associated with the stored coefficient vector. In the doll embodiment the invention states “I see <name>.” If the comparison is not successful, then the invention states “I don't know you. What is your name?” The new object is then enrolled into the user database, and will be recognized as such in all subsequent encounters.

Object Tracking. Once the invention has identified an object, it will track said object if it moves physically in subsequent images. That is, the invention will monitor the location of identified objects. When an object leaves the immediate environment of the invention, the invention states “Goodbye, <name>.”

Thus, in order to create an object recognition system that will fit in a toy, the inventor has developed a software program that will execute on hardware small enough to fit within a toy's body and run on simple battery power. In the embodiment detailed above, the invention is small enough to fit within a doll's body.

Further, the embodiment of the invention regarding toys requires small templates and high speed.

The embodiment of the invention for toys and dolls requires high accuracy—a very low rate of false positives and high speed performance—less than one second to recognize a valid object.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiment of the invention is merely a possible example of implementations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention. Variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment of the invention without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of the invention and protected by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An entertainment system capable of object interaction with a plurality of animate or inanimate objects, the entertainment system comprising: an entertainment device configured to house a miniaturized object identification apparatus; the miniaturized object identification apparatus comprising: an imaging system capable of capturing a plurality of images of said objects and sending the plurality of images; a data processor capable of receiving the plurality of images and encoding said images of the objects into a vector of coefficients, enrolling said vector of coefficients into a database, comparing said vector of coefficients with a plurality of coefficient vectors previously stored on the database, notifying the object of a successful or unsuccessful comparison and tracking the object's movement from the immediate vicinity of the entertainment system; a USB hub capable of transmitting signals via a USB connection; a speaker system for interacting with said objects; and a power source.
 2. The entertainment System of claim 1, wherein said entertainment device is a toy.
 3. The entertainment System of claim 1, wherein said entertainment device is a doll.
 4. The entertainment system of claim 1, wherein said imaging system is an infra-red camera, wherein the infra-red camera comprises a plurality of illuminators having a minimum of VGA resolution.
 5. The entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the miniaturized object identification tracking apparatus is two inches by two inches or less in size.
 6. The entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the data processor is a 32 bit processor.
 7. The entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the data processor is a 16 bit processor.
 8. The entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the data processor is an 8 bit processor.
 9. A miniaturized object identification and tracking system for identifying a plurality of animate or inanimate objects, notifying a user whether said objects are recognized, tracking said objects and interacting with said objects, the miniaturized object identification and tracking system comprising: a small data processor capable of functioning at a low power; an infra-red camera comprising a plurality of illuminators having a minimum of VGA resolution; a miniaturized object identification algorithm for encoding and identifying a plurality of images of the objects; a 1 MB or less memory; and a speaker.
 10. An interactive toy comprising: an infra-red camera; a processor associated with said camera; a miniaturized algorithm for encoding a plurality of images captured by the infra-red camera and identifying said plurality of images of the objects; a USB hub capable of transmitting signals via a USB connection; a speaker system for interacting with said objects; and a power source. 